Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
The Flower That Melts Regret消恨花
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 4 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.
遺事云。明皇於禁苑中。初有千葉桃盛開。帝與貴妃逐日宴於樹下。帝曰。不獨萱草忘憂。此花亦能銷恨。
The Yishi (遺事) says: When the thousand-leaved peach first came into full bloom in the palace garden, Minghuang feasted daily beneath the tree with the Honored Consort. The Emperor said, "It is not the day-lily alone that makes one forget care; this flower too can melt away regret."
趁日窮歡擁色嬌。時平莫慮泰山搖。心頭有底些些恨。却倚妖花欲自銷。
Day after day he takes his fill of pleasure, holding a lovely one in his arms, and because the times are at peace he does not fear that Mount Tai will be shaken. What small regret can there be within his heart, that he should lean instead upon a bewitching flower to melt it away?